Trenton Youth to Put Business Skills to the Test at Minding Our Business Market Fair

Minding Our Business (M.O.B.), a community outreach project organized by the College of Business Administration at Rider University, will hold its 13th annual Market Fair on Saturday, April 4, at Patton J. Hill Elementary School, 1010 East State Street, Trenton, N.J.

This year, the outreach project will honor Rodney Lofton, superintendent of Trenton Schools, for his steadfast commitment to advance the development of Trenton youth and his strong support of the M.O.B. program. He will be honored at 11:30 a.m.

The Market Fair is the culmination of a semester-long course, CBA-220: Minding Our Business, offered at Rider. This year, 72 college-aged mentors – the majority from Rider – met with public school students and acted as guides as the younger students learned a variety of business skills, from marketing and communications to sales techniques and product inventory. The youngsters then put their business plan to the test in a festival-like atmosphere of the Market Fair. This year, 25 teams, involving 225 Trenton students, and a delegation of 25 students and eight mentors from Perth Amboy, will participate.

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Patton J. Hill Elementary School gym, and will also feature a talent show, a band, a DJ and drill teams.

M.O.B., which offers spring, summer and advanced programs, enables Trenton youth to learn how to start and run their own businesses under the mentorship of Rider University students. At the conclusion of the programs, middle school students sell their wares at market fairs. Since 1997, MOB has trained and mentored more than 1,500 10-to-14-year-old Trenton students into starting and running their businesses.

M.O.B. recently expanded with a pilot program at a middle school in Perth Amboy, N.J. The pilot program includes seventh- and eighth-grade students from William C. McGinnis Middle School and its alternative school, and operates similarly to the current M.O.B. model.

For more information, please call Dr. Sigfredo Hernandez, M.O.B. founder, at 609-895-5509, or e-mail hernandez@rider.edu.